Even with a struggling economic crisis you must guarantee that your company stands out from the competition. Capitalize on your existing customers and potential clients. Make sure that customer service is at its best and/or improve it if necessary. Better customer service can draw in more customers and strength current client loyalty.
There is no better time to try new, innovative, and effective techniques to set your business apart from others. You can be creative even when the economy is low. Inspire your customers to stay loyal when you show them that you are willing to put forth new innovative systems to stay at the top of your brand.
Processes optimization is the discipline of adjusting existing processes for maximizing output and minimizing cost. The company can start planning ahead for future operations by improving upon existing processes that can help generate more output when the financial crisis passes. For companies that work in manufacturing, there are generally three main areas of optimization.
The first step is to verify that the existing equipment is being used to its fullest advantage by examining operating data to identify poor performance equipment. To improve plant efficiency and profitability, total cost needs to be reduced by optimizing operational processes and maintenance. This is done by continuously improving machine reliability and being proactive with equipment maintenance. Asset management programs and automation systems can significantly improve plant efficiency, product quality, profitability, safety, and the overall operator environment. Here is a small list of how to approach equipment optimization.
Operational procedure is a fancy title for workflow. Workflow optimization is an important way to reduce cost and provide better services. With inefficient workflows, things take longer and cost more to get done. Rethinking workflow procedures is a critical part of the process of incorporating new and future technologies to the companies manufacturability line. To optimize typical processes the following elements need to be followed:
Keep in mind that these elements can be applied to anything that has a workflow. This could be for optimizing application processes for clerical work, workflow for manufacturing procedures for production lines, or inventory shipping and receiving operations. Optimizing operational procedures can improve product development time, improved workflow, low manufacturability costs, and increased product output.
Production facilities are run all-day long and continuously to pump out the most amount of products possible. Process facilities are often monitored by hundreds of sensors that stream real-time data to operators about the plants performance. Manby manufacturing facilities use distributed control systems (DCS) for processes in a manufacturing facility. DCS are dedicated systems used to control manufacturing processes that are continuously operating. DCS are connected to sensors and actuators and use setpoint control to control the flow of materials through the production process.
In order to improve performance it is often advised for plants to purchase performance supervision system (PSS) software for the process facility. This will gather all the real-time data, within the software, from the process control system and calculate performance for process equipment, controls, and operators. For data to be useful they need to measure meaningful, measurable, and actionable information. In most performance supervision systems, the software can be used to diagnose and prioritize opportunity with the equipment, controls, or operators.
Every company has challenges of matching its supply volume to customer demand. How well the company manages this challenge has a major impact on its profitability.
Note: One of the advantages of using E3.series and customizing it's database is that the company can restrict database components to prefered suppliers. If every project and every team uses the same component models, purchases get cheaper, Inventory has less part diversity. Production and maintenance become cheaper and orders in greater numbers can receive better payment options
There are four main areas of supply chain planning to focus on when trying to get more from your inventory.
All businesses want to boost productivity and efficiency while reducing errors and accidents, but this can be especially beneficial for small businesses operating with tighter budgets and smaller employee force. Standardization can be an effective way to increase productivity and efficiency by formalizing processes and creating accountability.
One of the key roles in standardization in the workplace is that it creates routine procedures that managers and employees can follow to complete tasks and responsibilities. Since employees won’t need to stop to consider the best way to complete a task, this keeps labor flowing to maintain productivity and efficiency. It also helps ensure uniformity so that final products and services are consistent.
Establishing standardized work relies on collecting and recording data on a few forms. These forms are used by engineers and front-line supervisors to design the process and by operators to make improvements in their own jobs. These three forms are:
The benefit of standardized work include documentation of current process for all shifts, reductions in variability, easier training of new operators, reduction in injury and strain, and a baseline for improvement activities.
It is easy to standardize project components and can save time and money for future development. For instance, electrical engineers use subcircuits constantly in their work. If engineers are using the same subcircuits over and over again, and having to re-create it with each new circuit can become a time waster.
As you build circuits that are more and more sophisticated, you will want to build smaller circuits that you can use multiple times in larger circuits. In Logisim, such a smaller circuit that is used in a larger circuit is called a subcircuit. Using the same subcircuit over and over without having to re-create can save valuable time for the engineer.
In softwares like E3.series, these subcircuits can be saved in the database and "dragged" into new projects to save time and keep new products standard in line with existing products.
Companies often overlook company waste production. Many companies have been content simply to establish and manage an efficient system for removing waste. Times have changed, and so has waste management. Many companies are seeing dramatic increase in complexity and cost of managing their waste. At the same time, public concern over the effects of waste has grown significantly. Today, more and more customers are taking environmental considerations into account when purchasing products and services.
In addition to saving money through lower waste removal costs, waste reduction makes good business sense in other ways, too. Waste reduction can help reduce expenditures on raw materials, office supplies, equipment, and other purchases. Streamlining operations to reduce waste often can enhance overall efficiency and productivity as well. Furthermore, waste reduction measures can help demonstrate concern for the environment and can increase customer loyalty. For many companies waste reduction is rapidly becoming an important component of their long-term business planning. For example, electrical engineering and manufacturing requires the use of large amounts of copper wires. If projects are not developed with proper communication, between mechanical and electrical engineers, wire lengths are not precise and can result in excess wires and shorten lengths due to drawing error, resulting in copper waste and production costs.
When company downtime is a direct, or indirect, result of the current economic crisis, there is no avoiding it. This is usually the best time to implement new and innovative solutions. Software implementation can be time consuming and straining on companies that try to set it up during high volume production operations. But low production times are the best moments to implement. It is crucial to keep idle teams busy during downtime and allow teams to remain complete once the crisis is over. Software implementation, especially on a large scale, requires the full support of the company. Overhauling software is not an overnight task.
Has the current economic state affected your company? What have you done during your company downtime?